'Hopefully' - Leeds United fingers crossed on attacker's international break injury nerves

Fingers are being crossed by Wilfried Gnonto he returns to Leeds United in one piece next week after two more games with Italy’s Under-21s. The 21-year-old played his 19th game in 91 days, for club and country, on Saturday with two more to come on the continent now.

Gnonto, who has become a key leader in the U21s side after his senior exploits, faces Friday on Friday and Ukraine next Tuesday. The attacker has averaged a match every four to five days since the league opener against Portsmouth and remains hopeful his positive injury record continues.

“I feel like it's always good to go away,” he said. “It's always good to have a break a little bit, see different faces as well, but hopefully, I'm going to come back healthy.

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“I'm going to have a couple of good nights away and I'm going to come home with a smile on my face and ready to go.”

Gnonto is one of only three outfield players to start every league game this season for Daniel Farke, the other two being centre-backs Pascal Struijk and Joe Rodon. There were 29 Leeds games, across all competitions, Gnonto didn’t start last season and he is delighted to be in a better place with his fitness.

Asked how the season has been for him up to now, he said: “It was okay. At the end of the day, I've been playing every game. I'm happy about it because last season I had, physically, many problems. I just wanted to find some consistency. I think I'm doing well.

“I have to keep going because, of course, I want more goals, I want more assists, I want to help the team even more and, yes, hopefully, many more things are going to come.”

Managing his body has been crucial for Gnonto. Recovery between matches and sessions has been critical for the Italian.

“It’s not easy,” he said. “We have many games and we're just at the start of the season. It's important at the moment to try to, every time we have days off, recover, try to use it as much as we can, try to be as healthy as possible and be ready to play every game.”